Forever
by JeanieBeanie33
Summary: What were Jack's thoughts as he swam towards the Black Pearl? Bunch of Jack goodness with a splash of the supernatural. Has epilogue. Oneshot.


Forever  
  
_What were Jack's thoughts as he swam toward the Black Pearl?  
_  
Jack landed in the ocean with a large splash, upside down. He wasn't afraid of it – after you've faced undead pirates, nothing's scary anymore.  
  
He was just wading there, shaking water off of his face, when he heard Gibbs's voice. Jack turned toward the noise.  
  
_'No, it can't be,'_ he thought, but there it was. The beautiful _Black Pearl_, it's torn black sails replaced with new black ones. Jack grinned. His crew had come back for him.  
  
As he swam toward it, he thought about what had happened the last couple days. He'd finally avenged Bill Turner's death by getting rid of Barbossa once and for all, he'd gotten his ship back, he'd met Bill's son Will who, all though a bit stiff, was not all that bad. He just did a few stupid things occasionally, even though those things, all though not the smartest things to do, were in fact the right thing to do, and Jack respected that. It was a shame that Will didn't want to join Jack's crew; he probably would've made an excellent pirate. Hopefully, he'll at least gather up the courage to marry Elizabeth. It was obvious that they loved each other too much to be broken up by anything, even her father and that rigid commodore, who Jack sincerely hoped would loosen up a bit.  
  
And thus Jack's thoughts turned to the commodore. He wondered if ol' Norry would go and ready the _Dauntless_ (which really was a nice ship). Hopefully, Jack's luck would help him out and allow him to get to the _Pearl_ early enough to get it ready and out of port before Norrington could catch him. Or maybe he wouldn't? Ah well, if he doesn't, then all it did was be more profitable for Jack and allow him to slip through the Royal Navy's fingers once again. Jack would probably do that several more times, every time, before finally, the noose would catch up to him. But that wouldn't be any time soon.  
  
He reached the _Pearl_, and the crew threw down a rope for him to grab. Jack did, and they pulled him so that he went very high, high into the new sails, and then land rather unceremoniously at the helm.  
  
"I thought you were supposed to keep to the code," said Jack, staring up at Gibbs.  
  
"We figured they were more actual...guidelines," said Gabbs. "Heh." He extended his hand, and Jack took it, and used it to get him up on his feet again. Cotton handed Jack his hat.  
  
"Thank you," said Jack.  
  
"Captain Sparrow," said Anamaria. She draped his captain's coat over him. "The _Black Pearl_ is yours." Jack smiled slightly, and walked slowly toward the reel. He drew his fingers over the crest of it, and smiled fondly as he held one of the knobs. Memories came back, memories of him, ten years younger, leading the _Pearl_ through thick and thin, with Bootstrap by his side, and the crew at his every will, firing the cannons and doing some honest pillaging.  
  
Then he realized the crew was watching him. His eyes widened. He couldn't appear soft like last time he was captain of this ship; he doubted his crew would maroon him, but Jack didn't really think he should push his luck so early in his new captaincy.  
  
"On deck you scabbers dog," he shouted. "Full hand to the rigging!" The crew scuttled off to do his bidding, all smiling amongst themselves as they willingly obeyed. Jack opened his compass that led to Isla de Meurta, and started humming that song that Elizabeth had taught him.  
  
"Now," Jack whispered, glad that he was once again at the helm of his ship once more. "Bring me that horizon. Duh da-dadadadada dud-da...and really bad eggs. Drink up me hearties, yo ho!" And he shut the compass.

* * *

EPILOGUE:  
  
Captain Jack Sparrow did indeed make many more escapes from the British Navy, the next one always more wild than the last, every time. William Turner's sons, Jack and Michael, and William himself joined Captain Jack's crew when Elizabeth Turner (she and Will naturally married) died from sickness in 1743, twenty years after the defeat of Barbossa and his crew. Anamaria had married Jack ten years prior to Elizabeth's death, and she and Jack had had a kid by then, a little girl named Pearl.  
  
Jack Sparrow might've died, two hundred and something years ago, but his spirit lives on. Some people in the Caribbean say that, at night, they can sometimes see a transparent ship with black sails out on the horizon, and a transparent man with black, dreadlocked hair, a mustache, and a goatee, dressed in a captain's coat, standing at the helm, letting the wind caress his face. Others say that sometimes they swear they hear the Royal Navy's footsteps and Captain Jack's laughter as he makes another daring escape. In fact, if you strode the beaches of the Caribbean late at night, you just might hear the sound of beads knocking together or the swish of a captain's coat, and it won't belong before you see the ghost of Captain Jack Sparrow, grinning and running past you, toward the docks, where the transparent _Black Pearl_, in all its glory, looms in the moonlight. 


End file.
